Family Bonding
by gomababe
Summary: What is a country to do when it's been snowing and no one's around to practice the decent winter sports with? Rated for some mild swearing


Scotland sighed in irritation as he looked out at the frozen landscape. It was the perfect weather to go out and get some decent practice in for some winter sports, but his brothers were all sitting in their homes complaining about the cold snap. Scotland honestly did not understand why his younger brothers had suddenly become such pansies, they'd had worse winters than this before. He got up out of his seat and stirred the tablet mixture he had sitting boiling on the stove again,

"Thank Christ fer non stick pans." He muttered as he made sure the sticky, sweet mixture wasn't burning. He looked out of the window taking in the beautiful scenery. He was glad to have gotten this little cottage on the outskirts of Bo'ness, the views across the River Forth were fantastic and the snow that was now settled all around him made him feel even more nostalgic than usual. He started a little when he heard a knock at the door,

"Now who the fuck could that be?" he muttered, turning the gas ring the pan was sitting on off before going to answer the door. When he opened it he most certainly did not expect to see his nephew standing there with a suitcase and a pair of skates slung over his shoulder,

"Edinburgh airport finally opened, eh" Canada greeted as he put his backpack at his feet, grinning at his uncle. Scotland blinked momentarily before grinning right back,

"Canada! Whit are ye daein' here? Come in afore ye freeze." Scotland exclaimed as he stood aside to let the younger nation in. Canada picked his things up again and hurried inside, closing the door behind him. Scotland bustled around taking Canada's things from him and putting them somewhere safe for now before practically pushing the poor young man into the kitchen and sitting him at the table. Canada laughed as Scotland filled the kettle and set it to boil,

"When I heard about the cold snap I figured I'd come for a visit." He explained, "It's not often you get so much snow and ice and I figured you might want someone to enjoy it with that wouldn't sit and complain about it." Scotland chuckled as he finally sat down after checking the tablet mixture again,

"Ye're awfie guid at that mind readin' thing laddie." He said, "So how did ye get fae the airport a' the way oot here? The roads are atrocious." Canada shrugged,

"I got a taxi as far as Queensferry and walked the rest of the way here, eh." He explained, "The roads are atrocious but the fields aren't." Scotland shook his head in mild disbelief,

"Ye're a stubborn wee git when ye put yer mind tae it aren't ye?" He chuckled again as Canada only replied with a slightly innocent 'who me?' look. "I'm glad ye did come though, England wis drivin' me mad, tellin' me that he'd had enough, London wis snowed under and he wisnae leavin' his bed 'til March at the earliest."Scotland shook his head, "An' here I am wi' the lowest temperatures since records began and 6 foot o' snow in places." Canada laughed,

"Seriously?" he asked, "I know Arthur likes to exaggerate but honestly, this is nothing to what I get on a regular basis." He sighed a little, "I guess that's where Alfred gets his tendency to hibernate in winter from." Scotland got up again and bustled around fixing the tea for the both of them,

"Aye well, they're pansies the pair o' them." He snorted, "And folk wonder why Britain wis so shite at the Winter Olympics at the start o' the year." The red-haired nation checked the temperature of his tablet mixture again absentmindedly, "If I had ma way we'd be goin' o'er tae Norway's hoose tae get in a ton mair practice every feckin' winter." Canada laughed from his seat,

"Well we can get in some practice over the next few days before all this snow melts right?"

"Tell me again why the bloody hell I'm even up here?" England asked as Scotland and Canada busied themselves with setting up the curling pond in Kinneil woods. Scotland glared up at his brother,

"Because Canada and I need someone tae play against ye dippit wanker, noo stop yer complainin' and make yersel' useful fer once." He snorted, pushing an armful of spray paint cans into his youngest brother's arms. Wales sat off to one side, shivering with the biting cold,

"I don't know why you made me come along to this practice session. I don't even do curling." He whined nasally, hugging his dragon in a lame attempt to keep warm. Scotland directed a glare towards him as well,

"And nae wonder we feckin' lost, noo get yir wee arse in gear afore I make ye." He threatened. Canada straightened up and sighed,

"I think Scotland means that the whole team needs to be able to work together. If you don't practice together then how are you going to get any better?" he said in an attempt to diffuse the situation. It seemed to work as Wales sagged a little in defeat,

"Alright, I get your point." He sighed, getting to his feet and placing his dragon on the stone he had been sitting on. The little creature snorted a little before settling down to watch the events unfold.

It didn't take long before the two teams were ready to start the game. In the interest of fairness Canada insisted that he play with England while Scotland would play with Wales. Scotland hadn't been best pleased with the arrangement but had given in when his nephew had given him 'that look'. Canada's team went first and the young nation was quick to put his father figure to work as he slid the stone across the frozen water,

"Come on England, you need to brush harder than that!" he called in an encouraging voice. England muttered into his scarf as he did as he was told, not really enjoying having to do the hard part by himself. He couldn't deny that Canada was much better at aiming than he was though, so he was stuck with it. Canada grinned as the stone finally slid to a stop near the middle of the scoring area,

"Your turn uncle Scotland." He called cheerily as he and England went off to the side. Scotland shot him a competitive smirk,

Dinnae come greetin' tae me when ye lose. I invented this sport." Canada waved the comment off cheerily enough, but there was certainly a competitive fire in his eyes as he watched his two older uncles take their positions. Scotland looked over the rink carefully, calculating the angle he'd need to slide his own stone at to get into a better position than his nephew. He nodded to Wales, who reluctantly readied his broom as Scotland knelt to slide his stone across the pond. When the stone started its journey across the frozen water Scotland was quick to take charge of his younger brother's brushing technique,

"Put yer soddin' back into it ye pansy!" he snapped, "Auld man Celt could probably dae better than that! ... Sod that, ROME could probably dae better!" Wales, to his credit, just grit his teeth and did what he was told. The stone slid to a stop just past the one Canada had thrown. Scotland looked over to the opposing team with a cheeky smirk and a tilt of his Glengarry. Canada smiled back pleasantly, but it was clear to England and Wales that the game was ON. The two nations looked at each other and sighed. This was going to be a long, tiring and very cold afternoon.

_Several hours later_

"Sorry you lost uncle Scotland, but at least it was a good game eh?" Canada poured out the tea for everyone when they got back from the woods. Scotland, despite his loss was grinning from ear to ear,

"If it wisnae fer that last lucky shot o' yours you'd hae been the one who lost." He commented, "Still it wis a guid game. Really close." Wales just groaned from his position on the couch in the sitting room,

"Where's that tea? I'm still freezin' cold and I'm aching all over!" he shouted. Scotland rolled his eyes,

"It's bein' made ye feckin' eejit. And it's supposed to be sair!" he shouted back. England was leaning against the counter, looking fairly tired,

"Don't mind Daffyd, he's just not used to so much exercise these days." He commented, gladly taking the tea Canada was proffering him, "Thank you Matthew, grab that shortbread and we'll head through to the living room. I could do with a soft seat after all that." Scotland chuckled as he got the tablet from out of the fridge and cut it into pieces,

"I'd say it wis because ye were getting auld, but what would that make me?" England smirked a little,

"Positively ancient," he replied, "though honestly, I don't get how you're still fitter than the rest of us when your population has the worst health records in Europe." Scotland shrugged,

"I get plenty o' fresh air and exercise, and my diet's no' all that bad." It was about then that Wales started whining again,

"I thought you said that tea was on the way already!" England, Scotland and Canada sighed and gathered the various plates and snacks and made their way into the sitting room. Scotland promptly pushed Wales off his sofa and lounged on it, ignoring the fact that his brother's dragon was trying to set his kilt on fire for the transgression {Scotland had learned long ago to fireproof all of his clothing and furniture} and used the little reptile's flame to light up a cigarette instead. England sat on the other sofa, sipping his tea with an amused looked on his face, while Wales curled up against him, still shivering and sending Scotland an accusatory scowl over his mug every so often. Canada, meanwhile settled himself onto the chair and grabbed a full plate of shortbread before settling back, watching as yet more snow fell to settle on top of the huge pile his uncle's house was already covered in. All in all, he decided, it was a nice cosy end to the day, the only thing that could make it even better was...

"Who's up fer some Christmas music to liven things up aroond here?"


End file.
